About this project
What this tool is and the data behind it.
Overview
This tool is a searchable database of deficiencies found in PCAOB firm inspection reports. The PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) inspects registered audit firms and publishes reports describing where an auditor failed to obtain enough evidence to support its opinion. This app collects those findings into a structured database so you can explore and analyze them on the Dashboard and Explorer.
All data comes from the PCAOB and is public. This is a research and analysis tool, not an official PCAOB product.
Coverage: what has been collected
The table below is live. The Collected figures come from the database right now; the Available figures are what the PCAOB datasets contained as of 2026-08-04. This shows at a glance which report years are loaded and which are available but not yet loaded.
| Report year | Reports (collected / available) | Part I.A deficiencies (collected / available) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 36 / 36 | 30 / — | Loaded |
| 2025 | 178 / 178 | 1,453 / 1,453 | Loaded |
| 2024 | 158 / 158 | 1,558 / 1,558 | Loaded |
| 2023 | 208 / 208 | 1,404 / 1,404 | Loaded |
| 2022 | 281 / 281 | 1,182 / 1,182 | Loaded |
| 2021 | 164 / 164 | 807 / 807 | Loaded |
| 2020 | 46 / 46 | 708 / 708 | Loaded |
A dash (—) for deficiencies means the PCAOB has not yet published the Part I.A detail for that year (the datasets update quarterly). Firm-level data exists on the PCAOB site back to 2004, but the detailed Part I.A deficiency dataset begins with report year 2020.
Where the data comes from
The PCAOB publishes official machine-readable datasets of inspection findings, linked from the Firm Inspection Reports page. They are updated quarterly and cover recent years. There are three files we use: a Part I.A file (individual deficiencies), a Part I.B file, and a firm data file (one row per inspection report, with the overview statistics). Our current data was built entirely from these files.
The data model
There are two linked tables. A Report is one PCAOB inspection report for one firm. A Finding is one distinct Part I.A deficiency inside a report — the same way the report itself counts them. A single deficiency may cite several auditing standards; those are grouped together into one finding (listed in referenced_standard). Every finding belongs to exactly one report (linked by report_id).
Reports
| report_id | Unique ID for the inspection report (e.g. 2025-024-michaeltstuder). Taken from the PDF file name. |
| firm_name | The registered audit firm that was inspected. |
| country | Country where the firm is located. |
| global_network | The global network the firm belongs to (EY, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, Grant Thornton, BDO), if any. |
| inspection_type | Annually Inspected or Triennially Inspected. |
| inspection_year | The year the audits that were reviewed took place. |
| report_date / report_year | When the inspection report was published. |
| pcaob_release_no | The PCAOB release number for the report (e.g. 104-2025-024). |
| report_pdf_url | Link to the original PDF report on the PCAOB website. |
| total_audits_reviewed | How many audits the PCAOB reviewed in this inspection. |
| audits_with_partIA_deficiencies | How many of those reviewed audits had Part I.A deficiencies. |
| partIA_deficiency_rate | Percent of reviewed audits that had a Part I.A deficiency. |
| num_partIA_issuers | Number of distinct companies (issuers) with Part I.A findings. |
| num_partIB_deficiencies | Count of Part I.B items for the report (count only; details not stored). |
| partII_qc_criticism | Whether the report includes a public Part II quality-control criticism. |
| num_partIA_deficiencies | Total number of distinct Part I.A deficiencies for this report. |
Findings
| finding_id | Unique ID for the individual deficiency (e.g. 2025-040-pwc-IA-1). |
| report_id | Links the finding back to its inspection report. |
| issuer_letter | Anonymized company label (A, B, C ...) as used in the report. |
| area_affected | The account or audit area affected (e.g. Revenue, Inventory, Goodwill). Primary area if the deficiency spans more than one. |
| audit_classification | Multiple deficiencies, a single deficiency, or an incorrect opinion. |
| type_of_audit | Financial statement audit only, ICFR only, or both. |
| significant_risk | Whether the firm had flagged this as a significant risk. |
| incorrect_opinion | Whether the deficiency was tied to an incorrect audit opinion. |
| referenced_standard | The auditing standard(s) the deficiency cites, grouped (e.g. AS 2301.8; AS 2301.13). |
| deficiency_description | The deficiency description as written in the PCAOB report. |
What we collect (and what we do not)
Collected
- Every Part I.A deficiency (the most serious findings), with its audit area, cited standards, audit type, and risk flags — one row per deficiency, exactly as the report presents them.
- Report-level overview statistics for each inspection (audits reviewed, audits with Part I.A deficiencies, deficiency rate, network, country, and so on).
Available on the PCAOB site but not collected
- Part I.B deficiency details — we store only the count per report, not each item.
- Part I.C independence findings and full Part II quality-control detail — we store only whether a public Part II criticism exists.
- Firm headquarters city and prior-year comparison rates — these require reading individual PDF reports and are left blank.
Who built this
This database was built by Tellen — the AI platform for audit and accounting firms. Tellen builds AI agents that take on the routine, document-heavy work of audit and accounting, so professionals can spend their time on judgment instead of busywork.
This PCAOB deficiency explorer is one small example of what that looks like: turning public inspection data into something practitioners can actually learn from.